Allan was sitting cross-legged and hovered in the middle of a transparent sphere. Outside of the sphere was what looked like roiling magma. He was very close to the core of Gray planet.

It had been almost a year since he had started inscribing the formation.

Today was the day he was to activate the formation.

He had made himself the core of the formation. He would then receive the soul energy crystals no matter where he was.

As his inner world of light could allow objects to enter he used it as the destination of the soul energy being siphoned.

The soul energy would then crystallize itself in the core of the formation resulting in soul energy crystals.

He chose the most secretive place he could think of to cultivate. Gray planet’s core...At least, the closer he was to the core the better.

It had been fairly easy to inscribe the formation as he had the power of the law of space. He could teleport wherever he wished to make himself invisible as well as making it easy to inscribe the formation.

“All right... Start.”

Runes appeared on his body and lit up.

Like a net, many nodes connected all around the planet.

***

Inside a separate dimension that was located on Gray planet, a sea of souls could be seen.

This dimension looked like a paradise.

In a garden, the Underworld King could be seen watering weird flowers that looked alive.

“Hum?...Something just left me?...What is it...A part of my soul just disappeared...it is so benign that I almost didn’t notice it...I cultivate my soul so such a thing could not escape my notice” The underworld king looked at the clear blue sky.

“It must be that kid...”

“Using the whole planet to siphon soul energy from all the living beings...even this dimension was not spared...” He shook his head. Inwardly he was impressed.

“Now that I think of it...All the souls that I own will be siphoned as well...”

“He thought he could steal from me without me knowing about it?...The other kings will eventually find out after a few days as well and they will hunt him down...I’ll let him off the hook for now...”

“Fortunately for him, in this separate dimension I own more souls of the dead than those alive...a ratio of a thousand to one...”

“A thousand times more souls than those living on the planet...can he handle it?” the underworld king had a smirk on his face.

He continued whistling and watering the plants as if nothing had happened.

***

Near the core of Gray planet.

Inside the same space bubble, Allan had closed his eyes and sent his avatar into his inner world of light to monitor the formation core.

“This is...What is happening?” Allan’s avatar was overwhelmed by the number of soul energy crystals.

Djen, who had sensed the disturbance, came out of the palace. He looked at growing mountain of soul energy crystals with a hint of fear.

“You...what have you done?” Djen could not understand how so many crystals could be created so fast. It was impossible in his mind. Unless Allan had inscribed the soul energy gathering formation on hundreds of planets.

Allan looked at Djen expecting an answer to this problem only to realize that Djen was as scared as he was.

“Well, I should rejoice that there’s so much...” Allan’s avatar shrugged. He put to the back of his mind and looked for a suitable space to store the soul energy crystals.

***

Six days after the formation was activated.

The underworld king’s dimension.

Niel was sitting on a simple chair with his legs crossed, reading a floating book.

Not far from him was a kneeling woman.

“Sir, the production of soul energy crystals has been slow for five days.” The kneeling woman said.

“I know.” Niel simply said.

“Sigh...I should go deal with this. Those two Kings are useless after all...”Niel shook his head.

In truth, the Golden King and the Dark King had mobilized their forces to find Allan after realizing that their soul had been slightly weakened.

They quickly guessed that someone was siphoning soul energy from their territory and Allan just happened to be their prime suspect as the Underworld King would never stoop to stealing from them.

When both kings realized that the other was looking for the same person, they went mad.

It wasn’t just a question of their territory, the whole planet had been the target all along.

If they could only find the core of the formation and control it, they could only imagine the gains...but after all their efforts and resources they could not find Allan.

Niel stood up and pushed the floating book away. He said: “Just continue your work. After today, there won’t be any problems.”

The woman then stood up as well and bowed one last time before flying away.

It took an instant for Niel to appear outside of his dimension.

“Well, I’m not dirtying myself. Better to send an incarnation to smoke him out.” Niel said as a transparent substance left him to create a clone next to him. The clone then bore through the earth and disappeared.

Minutes later, the clone arrived next to Allan but did not enter the bubble Allan cultivated in.

As if he had sensed the arrival of another being, Allan opened his eyes. He thought: “What does he want this time? Is it because of my formation?”

Finally, Allan pieced it together. He understood that the Underworld King had so many souls, which explained the situation.

Allan thought: “I’m sorry but I still need more.” Greed had found its way into Allan’s heart. It felt like he couldn’t abandon no matter how many soul energy crystals he already had. In fact, he had already lost count of the soul energy crystals he possessed.

“He doesn’t know that the core is in my inner world. I can keep escaping by teleportation for days and he’d never catch me no matter how strong he is.” Allan thought before he just teleported away with a smile.

The incarnation faded away with the last thought: “Idiot. You’re just delivering yourself to me. How do you think I found you?”

In the skies, Niel had closed his eyes and was looking for any traces of Allan.

His senses encompassed the whole planet.

“There.” Said Niel.

Niel then disappeared from where he was.

It wasn’t teleportation, he was just that fast.

He arrived near Allan seconds after he appeared.

Allan was surprised at first but thought that Niel was just close by. In his mind, he was just unlucky. He teleported again.

Allan was still attuning himself with the Law of space and could not travel very far but in his mind, it was far enough to give him time to teleport again and who knows, maybe he would get the hang of it and increase the distance of teleportation.

It was with fear that he realized that Niel was waiting for him to arrive at his destination.

Supposedly, the teleportation required time to be completed even at the arrival. Niel just had to look for the ripples created by the arriving target and rush there before the target even materialized.

Niel had that eternal smile on his face as he said: “We meet once again. You should understand that...”

He could not finish his line before Allan teleported again.

The same thing happened again and Niel arrived before Allan materialized continuing his phrase: “...you have no choice but to listen to me again.”

Allan then lost all courage again. It seemed to him that he was too unlucky and weak in front of this Underworld King.

“For his speed to be faster than my teleportation...” Alland mused to himself.

“Can’t you at least let me harvest soul energy crystals for a couple more days?”Allan asked.

“If you were stronger than me or at the same level as me, I would listen to your ramblings.” Niel shook his head.

As they spoke the formation was still creating crystals.

“Come to your senses and stop. All I ask is for you to leave my dimension out of your formation. You can keep the rest of planet but you’d have to deal with the two Kings.” Niel said.

Allan felt helpless. It was by knowing that he had no choice that he deactivated the formation.

Allan asked: “Where is your dimension located?”

“Simple. You need to leave the North Sea alone.” Niel said as he disappeared from Allan’s eyes.

It took Allan a whole week to edit out the North sea from the path of the formation before it was reactivated it again.

He was about to leave to find a secluded place to cultivate when a man in a strange black attire arrived. The man had a hatchet on his back and had long black hair.

“I finally found you. You know...not many people can force me to look for them when I have so many underlings that are more suited for the task.” The man said.

Allan sighed as he realized that he once again against a strong Law seeker. Someone even stronger than the Golden King.

“Let me guess. The Dark King.” Allan said.

“It is I, Yes.” the Dark King said.

“My luck is really the worst. I keep bumping into these people. Well, It’s not like he can do anything to me now.” Allan thought.

“What can I do for you? I’m in a hurry.” Allan said.

“I’d like to invite you to my palace.” the dark king said.

“Why not just ask for that formation that you all want? Well, you’re the only one who doesn’t have it.” Allan said.

The dark king fell silent for a moment before he smiled saying: “I was hoping that we’d easily become friends but it seems that you are more human than I thought.”

His smile was one that ridiculed oneself as he continued: “You know for a half demon with a rich bloodline like yours, you could rule the dark kingdom. Even I am ashamed to carry this thin bloodline of mine.”

“Rich bloodline?” Allan asked.

“Yes. Those who experience an ancestral awakening have purer bloodlines. There is also another way to acquire a pure bloodline, it is by tempering the blood and body with soul energy. It is the same as awakening but we remain ourselves. You, however, are an unknown variable that survived a true ancestral awakening...we are curious about that.” The dark king said.

Allan was reminded of the memories of Djen feeding soul energy to a drop of blood.

“So half demons and demons need soul energy crystals more than humans do?” Allan asked.

“Correct...I thought you knew ...hehe...If I awakened my bloodline, I wouldn’t even be scared of the Underworld King.” The dark king said. He added: “And it is not even the end, with enough soul energy crystals, you can keep purifying your bloodline. There is no known limit.”

A moment passed before Allan sighed and said: “I have two inner worlds. Do you know any remedy that doesn’t involve losing one of them to keep my life? If you have one, I can give you that formation.”

The dark king was surprised to hear those words and immediately laughed. He said: “It’s exactly what I just said. If you purify your bloodline your body becomes stronger and more resilient. In the higher stages, even having a third inner world won’t kill you but the prerequisite is that you keep purifying your bloodline as your surplus inner world grows stronger. Or else, you find yourself with the same problem again.”

Allan heaved a sigh of relief.

Djen who was once again monitoring what was happening outside also sighed: “Now that he knows, I lost my only way out of here. Taking advantage of a future backlash is unfeasible.”

“Do you have a memory stone?”Allan asked.

The dark king rummaged through his storage pouch and took out a memory stone. He gave it to Allan.

Allan recorded all the specifics on how to inscribe the formation in the memory stone which he gave back to the dark king.

The dark king took it and stowed it away carefully. He then said: “You know. The invitation still stands.”

“Lead the way.” Allan said.